(2024) Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost. Vitals: Director: Brady Corbet. Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola.
CC, MPAA rating:R, 215 min., Drama, Theatrical release date: December 20, 2024, North American box office gross: $15.152 million, worldwide $36.633 million, A24.Formats: DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: Filmmaker commentary with director of photography Lol Crawley; "The Architects of The Brutalist” featurette; six Collectible postcards with architectural renderings by Ákos Sógor.
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Top Disc Releases Next Week
•Companion •A Complete Unknown •Dog Man •Flight Risk •Love Hurts •Love Me •Mufasa: The Lion King •One of Them Days
God Save the Queens:Featuring a glittering constellation of Los Angeles drag stars, this audacious and candy-colored dramedy follows a quartet of down-on-their-luck queens who end up stuck at the same therapy retreat. (Digital sales, VOD only)
Invader:A young woman arrives in the Chicago suburbs and begins to suspect that something terrible has happened to her missing cousin, but soon realizes that her greatest fears don't even begin to scratch the surface. (Digital sales, VOD only)
My Dearest Fu Bau:Fu Bao was the first giant panda born in Korea, but she was always meant to return to China someday. MY DEAREST FU BAO tells the heartwarming story of her and her handlers' tearful goodbye with a mix of documentary footage and animation. (Digital sales, VOD only)
Shadow of the Wolf:A series of mutilated corpses is upsetting a town in central Italy. Police believe that this is a wolf, but it might be a beast unlike anything they have ever seen. (Digital sales, VOD only)
This Place:A coming-of-age story about two women falling in love for the first time. As they grow closer, each is forced to confront their family histories in unexpected ways, while navigating multiple legacies of grief and love. (Digital sales, VOD; DVD release: Day & date)
To Die Alone:After suffering a terrible injury while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Irving must find a way to escape the woods alive and confront her inner demons with the help of a stranger. (Digital sales, VOD only)
March 27
A Complete Unknown:In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. (Hulu)
Holland:A woman's picture-perfect life in quaint Holland, Michigan crumbles, when she and a friend uncover a twisted secret in their midst. Stars Nicole Kidman. (Prime Video)
(2024) Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola. When visionary architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet flee Europe to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious and wealthy client. DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo + Digital Code, VOD, Digital. Extras: Filmmaker commentary with director of photography Lol Crawley; "The Architects of The Brutalist” featurette; six Collectible postcards with architectural renderings by Ákos Sógor.
(Studio). Read more here.
Choose Me
(1984) An achingly romantic neon dream, Alan Rudolph’s comic and cutting exploration of the mysteries of human desire established him as one of the most boldly idiosyncratic independent auteurs of the 1980s. At the smoky dive Eve’s Lounge, a collection of strangers—including an insecure radio sexpert (Genevičve Bujold), a commitment-phobic former sex worker (Lesley Ann Warren), and a globe-trotting mystery man (Keith Carradine)—become entangled in a web of passion, jealousy, and self-discovery. Grooving to the rhythms of Teddy Pendergrass’s sexy slow jams, "Choose Me" exists on its own offbeat wavelength—knotty, surprising, and deeply tender in its vision of lost souls wounded by love yet still reaching out for human connection.Formats: 4K UHD + Blu-ray, Blu-ray, with new 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Alan Rudolph and producer David Blocker, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. Extras:Read more here. (The Criterion Collection).
The Daredevils and Ode to Gallantry
(1979 -- Hong Kong) During his long and industrious career, the "Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema" Chang Cheh made several films with the celebrated "Venom Mob," a group of skilled martial arts performers - including Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Philip Kwok, Sun Chien, Lo Mang, and Wai Pak - who rose to fame as the stars of his own Five Deadly Venoms. Here, Eureka Classics presents two of the Venom Mob's best: "The Daredevils" and "Ode to Gallantry." Set in Republic era China, "The Daredevils" follows Yang Ta-ying (Lo Mang) as he sets out to avenge his father, a military commander who was murdered in cold blood by Han Pei-tsang (Wong Lik), a thief-turned-soldier who killed Yang's father - along with the rest of his family - to take control of his estate and his army. With the help of his friends Chen Feng (Chiang Sheng), Fu Quanyi (Lu Feng), and Xin Zheng (Sun Chien), he sets out for justice. Then, in "Ode to Gallantry," a lone martial artist nicknamed "Mongrel" is continually drawn into an intense struggle between several warring martial arts clans after he stumbles across the Black Iron Token, which entitles the owner to have any wish granted by Xie Yanke (Wong Lik), a brutal kung fu master. After forming in 1978 for Five Deadly Venoms, the Venom Mob made over a dozen films with Chang Cheh that featured at least three of their number in starring roles. Filled with thrilling action set-pieces courtesy of some of the most talented martial artists to emerge in the 1970s, "The Daredevils" and "Ode to Gallantry" are two of the finest among them. Limited edition of 2000 copies. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: Two new commentaries by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth; two new commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema; "Deadly Venoms" interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the Venom Mob; limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by writer and critic James Oliver. (Eureka Classics/MVD Entertainment).
Don't Torture a Duckling
(1972 -- Italy) From Lucio Fulci, the godfather of gore, comes one of the most powerful and unsettling giallo thrillers ever produced: his 1972 masterpiece "Don't Torture a Duckling." When the sleepy rural village of Accendura is rocked by a series of murders of young boys, the superstitious locals are quick to apportion blame, with the suspects including the local "witch", Maciara (Florinda Bolkan). With the bodies piling up and the community gripped by panic and a thirst for bloody vengeance, two outsiders - city journalist Andrea (Tomas Milian) and spoiled rich girl Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet) - team up to crack the case. But before the mystery is solved, more blood will have been spilled, and not all of it belonging to innocents. Deemed shocking at the time for its brutal violence, depiction of the Catholic Church and themes of child murder and implied pedophilia, "Don't Torture a Duckling" is widely regarded today as Fulci's greatest film, rivaling the best of his close rival Dario Argento. Arrow Films is proud to present this uniquely chilling film in its 4K debut. Brand new 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope camera negative by Arrow Films. Formats: 4K UHD Extras:Read more here. (Arrow Video/MVD Entertainment).
Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau
The hardboiled genre of crime fiction evolved from the mystery crime novels of the early 20th century - closely associated with the US pulp magazines, these cynical and unsentimental stories of desperate criminals and social corruption were both influenced by and an influence on the golden era of film noir. As their popularity waned in the US, the hardboiled genre remained hugely popular and relevant throughout the 1960s and 70s in France, thanks to the successful Serie Noire imprint and a succession of new translations. In Alain Corneau's early films, he sought to continue the noir tradition in his native France, and was both directly and indirectly inspired by titans of hardboiled genre, including Kenneth Fearing and Jim Thompson. A heady combination of classic noir and 70s grit, these three darkly thrilling films are vastly underrated and important works in the canon of crime cinema. In "Police Python 357" (1976), Yves Montand plays a tough cop who, when his lover is found murdered, finds himself implicated in her death and in a battle of wits with a powerful rival, in the second screen adaptation of Kenneth Fearing's "The Big Clock." "Série noire" (1979) adapts Jim Thompson's "A Hell of a Woman" to the banlieues of Paris: in an astonishing performance, Patrick Dewaere attempts to save a young girl from prostitution, with murder the only solution. "In Choice of Arms" (1981), Yves Montand heads an all-star cast, including Catherine Denueve and Gerard Depardieu, as a former crook pulled out of retirement when a gang on the run turn to him for shelter after a prison break. All three films are making their Blu-ray debut. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras:Read more here. (Radiance/MVD Entertainment).
In Custody/The Proprietor: 2 Films By Ismail Merchant
"In Custody" (1994), starring Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi and Om Pur, follows university scholar Deven (Puri), who is tasked by a magazine editor to interview the greatest living Urdu poet, the aging Nur (Kapoor). Thrilled to meet his idol and rekindle his interest in the dying Urdu language, Deven's ideals are shattered when the poet proves to be a difficult subject. Forging ahead, and meeting numerous setbacks along the way, the unlikely pair eventually form a bond over their mutual appreciation for the beauty and power of words, and those elusive things that touch the human heart. "The Proprietor" (1996), starring Jeanne Moreau, Sean Young and Sam Waterston, tells the story of Adrienne Mark (Moreau), a respected French-Jewish writer who lives in New York - a virtual prisoner of her memories of growing up in wartime France. When her childhood home is placed up for auction, Adrienne’s desire to purchase the property and return to her homeland is complicated by feelings of betrayal, persecution and lingering secrets regarding her mother’s death during World War II. It is a touching tale about change, friendship and of reconciling with one’s past as a way to make peace with the present.Formats: DVD, Blu-ray. (Cohen Film Collection).
Night Moves
(1975) Arthur Penn’s haunting neonoir reimagines the hard-boiled detective film for the disillusioned, paranoid 1970s. In one of his greatest performances, Gene Hackman oozes world-weary cynicism as a private investigator whose search for an actress’s missing daughter (Melanie Griffith) leads him from the Hollywood Hills to the Florida Keys, where he is pulled into a sordid family drama and a sinister conspiracy he can hardly grasp. Bolstered by Alan Sharp’s genre-scrambling script and Dede Allen’s elliptical editing, the daringly labyrinthine "Night Moves" is a defining work of post-Watergate cinema—a silent scream of existential dread and moral decay whose legend has only grown with time.
Formats: 4K UHD + Blu-ray, Blu-ray, with new 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features. Extras:Read more here. (The Criterion Collection).
Star Trek: Lower Decks The Final Season
(2024) Two-disc set with all 10 episodes. In the fifth and final season, the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is tasked with closing “space potholes” - subspace rifts which are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Jr. Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford ... if they didn’t also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries and scariest of all: their own career aspirations. Formats: DVD, Blu-ray. Extras: Five audio commentaries; "Lower Decktionary: Season 5." (Paramount).
Star Trek: Lower Decks The Complete Series
(2020-24) Ten-disc set with 50 episodes of the animated series about the support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos; they have to keep up with their duties, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. Formats: Blu-ray steelbook. Extras: Five hours of special features, including audio commentaries, “Lower Decktionaries,” featurettes; exclusive art card that includes the signatures of the crew. (Paramount).
This Place
(2022 -- Canada) Devery Jacobs, Priya Guns, Ali Momen. A coming-of-adulthood story about two women falling in love for the first time. As they grow closer, each is forced to confront their family histories in unexpected ways, while navigating multiple legacies of grief and love. One woman is half-Iranian, half-Mohawk; the other is Tamil. Kawenniióhstha has moved to Toronto to pursue her dream of becoming a poet. The city is also where her estranged father lives. Raised by her single Kanien’kehá:ka mother in Kahnawŕ:ke Mohawk Territory, she never knew her dad. And he does not know she exists. She yearns to meet him but struggles to make contact. For Malai, after the passing of her mother, her father’s alcoholism reaches its peak, pushing her to leave home with her elder brother. Years later, as her father battles terminal cancer, she tries to reconcile with him while navigating her brother’s refusal to do the same. Through two families complicated by love and loss, this film intimately explores the stories of those living in the liminal space between cultures, displaced both at home and abroad. At the center remains Kawenniióhstha and Malai, whose journeys we follow together and apart. Formats: DVD, VOD, Digital. (Freestyle Digital Media).
Venom
(1981) Susan George and Oliver Reed star as a maid and chauffeur who conspire with international terrorist Klaus Kinski to kidnap the grandson of their rich boss Sterling Hayden). Their simple plan falls apart when the grandson brings home a snake that turns out to be a deadly Black Mamba. The aggressive reptile gets loose in the posh London apartment and the abduction turns into a fight for survival. "Venom" was directed by Piers Haggard ("The Blood on Satan's Claw") and is based on the novel by best-selling author Alan Scholefield. The kidnapping drama/horror film features an all-star cast, including Nicol Williamson, Sarah Miles and Cornelia Sharpe. Formats: 4K UHD + Blu-ray. Extras: Archival audio commentary with director Piers Haggard; new audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani; new video interviews with editor/second unit director Michael Bradsell, makeup artist Nick Dudman, author & critic Kim Newman, and "The Dark Side’s" Allan Bryce; trailers; TV spots; still Gallery. First Pressing includes embossed slipcover and collectible booklet with essay by Michael Gingold. (Blue Underground/MVD Entertainment).
DVD
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and "Ode to Gallantry." Set in Republic era China, "The Daredevils" follows Yang Ta-ying (Lo Mang) as he sets out to avenge his father, a military commander who was murdered in cold blood by Han Pei-tsang (Wong Lik), a thief-turned-soldier who killed Yang's father - along with the rest of his family - to take control of his estate and his army. With the help of his friends Chen Feng (Chiang Sheng), Fu Quanyi (Lu Feng), and Xin Zheng (Sun Chien), he sets out for justice. Then, in "Ode to Gallantry," a lone martial artist nicknamed "Mongrel" is continually drawn into an intense struggle between several warring martial arts clans after he stumbles across the Black Iron Token, which entitles the owner to have any wish granted by Xie Yanke (Wong Lik), a brutal kung fu master. After forming in 1978 for Five Deadly Venoms, the Venom Mob made over a dozen films with Chang Cheh that featured at least three of their number in starring roles. Filled with thrilling action set-pieces courtesy of some of the most talented martial artists to emerge in the 1970s, "The Daredevils" and "Ode to Gallantry" are two of the finest among them. Limited edition of 2000 copies. Formats: Blu-ray. Extras: Two new commentaries by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and martial artist and filmmaker Michael Worth; two new commentaries by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema; "Deadly Venoms" interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the Venom Mob; limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by writer and critic James Oliver. (Eureka Classics/MVD Entertainment).
